Uninvited Guests After the Storm

Tropical Storm Faye reached us on Friday, hitting us with 40 mile per hour wind gusts and dumping several inches of rain on our property. We survived intact, for the most part, and other than having a few small tree limbs to pick up, we were relatively unscathed. We lost power for about 4 hours on Fri, but were back on-line in the evening.

Thanks to Faye, however, I discovered some uninvited guests. While clipping some broken branches from one of our oak trees, I noticed a yellow jacket buzzing around. I ignored it, and kept trimming. Fortunately, it didn't take me long to finish my task. The yellow jacket, however, was still buzzing around the tree trunk. So I took a closer look. I noticed that the tree trunk was moving. Cautiously, I looked again. Apparently, an army of yellow jackets decided to invade our tree. They had found a hole created by a woodpecker, and had built a nest inside the tree. I was no more than 2 feet from them while trimming, but I didn't get stung. Since my ability to get stung is known far and wide, I called for back up in the form of Big Dave, and he came to the rescue bearing a HUGE can of hornet/wasp spray. He sprayed the affected area once yesterday, but he'll have to keep applying it for a few more days, as the nest appears to be pretty deep.

Big Dave is the official insect killer in the house. But it's not because I'm squeamish about bugs. It's because I'm the one who will be stung/bit/attacked. I can't tell you the number of times I've gotten stung by scorpions, stung by wasps, bit by spiders, or otherwise suffered a physical assault by insects. I'm not the one who kills them, but I'm still the one who will get stung. Where's the fairness in that?

Oh, and you should see Big Dave when he's in insect attack mode. He fears nothing -- not a pincher, not a stinger -- nothing. He will walk right up the nest, poke at it with a stick to make them come out, then spray and laugh his demonic laugh. It's absolutely hilarious to watch. The fact that they DARE invade his yard is reason enough for him bring on the Napalm. Watching a grown man wage a battle against a hive of insects -- now THAT's entertainment.